A valet’s duties consisted of attending to Hitler’s personal requirements. In the morning at the agreed time Hitler would be awoken by a knock on the bedroom door. The servant would then place newspapers and reports before the door and retire. While Hitler was reading, the servant would prepare his bath and set out his clothing for the day. Hitler would never have a manservant help him dress. In the evening the servant would report to Hitler once all his guests had assembled for dinner. At the Berghof he would always be told: ‘Mein Führer, it is arranged that you will lead in Frau Such-and-Such…’ During the war the servants in the FHQs would invite the participants by telephone to the nightly tea session after the military situation conference. The servants had a very important role to play for the invitees◦– informing them of Hitler’s mood!
From my work space in the Adjutancy I looked down on the fine old trees in the Reich Chancellery park where Bismarck used to stroll. On the other side of the room were the tall wing-doors opening to Hitler’s room and then beyond that to the Congress Hall made famous by Bismarck. At about ten each morning Hitler came through the high wing-doorway at my back from his flat in the Radziwill Palace. He passed through the Personal Adjutancy to reach his study in the Reich Chancellery. Secretary of State Dr Lammers would have drawn up a schedule the day before for the high-level discussions to be held. On his way to these conferences Hitler would always be in haste but on the way back took his time. Mostly he would stand at the large table and look over the materials there. These might be applications for honorary citizenship, presents from supporters and adoring women, pictures, books, handicrafts, artwork, etc. laid out for him there. Often he would give a short instruction or sign those documents appearing to be urgent.
At this time I saw Hitler daily, except for weekends which he usually spent in Munich. He would always give me a friendly greeting: ‘How are you?’ He was not an office or desk person and preferred to hold his afternoon conferences in the Winter Garden strolling up and down with his conversation partners. In fine weather the glass doors would be fastened wide open and his great, bright room used only as a corridor to the Reich Chancellery park.
The Personal Adjutancy was only a liaison and communications centre. Sitting at my work position I knew only rarely with whom Hitler would be having a conference, and it was impossible to have a peep. All important correspondence was kept by Hitler personally in his private room while Schaub kept much more in the strongbox. We secretaries only had access to Hitler’s study for dictation. All political directives and orders for home and overseas Hitler distributed orally to the Reichsleiters, to Himmler, to the ministers or their representatives and to the foreign ministry. The conferences were not tailored to a particular timetable and would often last into the early hours. The conversation partner would then carry out the directive or order, or have it typed up for his signature later. I never learned anything about the measures being introduced and current events, or at least less than the secretaries to the Reichsleiter, ministers and so on. If Hitler’s ‘Basic Instruction’[36] was enforced strictly anywhere it was in the Personal Adjutancy. When something of importance had occurred, or was about to, then one would get a certain feeling, and the atmosphere would become ominous, or at least so it seemed to me.
The person absolutely in the know in the Adjutancy was Julius Schaub. He was informed about everything and apparently enjoyed his unique privilege. If by chance I got wind of something and was imprudent enough to even think about asking Schaub, he would give me a warning look from the corner of his eye over the spectacles perched low on his nose. I would feel a nasty tightening of the chest should he then decide to investigate further with a ‘What? What’s up?’ Personally that always made me feel threatened and I would try to extricate myself from the business as quickly as possible, perhaps remarking: ‘Oh, I was just wondering.’ One was always groping in the dark for information, rarely getting to know something concrete. Even the trips out would only be announced very shortly before departure. While I was living in Wilmersdorf and had to go back there to pack after a trip came up out of the blue, all the secretiveness created a whirlpool which made me quite nervous.
Chapter 2
The Röhm Putsch 1934
AT THE END OF June 1934 a large number of secret machinations was afoot. Hitler had gone to Essen as witness to the marriage of Gauleiter Terboven.[37] On the evening of 28 June in Berlin I received telephoned instructions to fly by Ju 52 that night from Tempelhof aerodrome to Godesberg. We took off at about 0300. Goebbels was aboard with some of his staff. It was my first flight high above the clouds and I was enchanted by the sight; I seemed to be over a white, foaming sea. I was still in this dreamy state when I arrived at Hotel Dreesen, where I was soon awakened to raw reality. Chief adjutant Brückner gave me the job of making telephone reservations at Hotel Hanselbauer, Bad Wiessee, for some high-ranking SA leaders for the next day. No explanation was given why. There was nothing you could put your finger on, but one could sense something in the wind. Hitler was not visible; he had conferences to attend.
In the early hours of 30 June, without previous warning, we received orders to fly to Munich. Hitler was in the first aircraft to go. He was accompanied by his closest staff: Brückner, Schaub, Reich press chief Dr Dietrich, Goebbels and the officials of the Criminal-Police Division[38] under Rattenhuber. I flew in the second aircraft, the only woman present amongst the SS-Begleitkommando (bodyguard) under Gesche, which always took off a little later than Hitler’s aircraft. When we arrived in Munich something unexpected occurred. Bruno Gesche had not been informed of where to go from Munich. The adjutants had simply forgotten to tell him. Gesche was scratching his head as to how to proceed and I mentioned to him the SA conference at Wiessee set for that day, intending that to be a clue for him. Gesche had already asked if there were any orders left for him at Hitler’s flat in the Prinzregenten-Platz but had drawn a blank.
We were all still in the dark when, after a long drive to Bad Wiessee, we entered the foyer of the Hotel Hanselbauer to find there the same oppressive atmosphere we had sensed in Godesberg. There was something in the wind but impossible to identify what. The Criminal-Police officials looked at me in surprise as I went up to SA chief of staff Röhm, who was sitting in a winged-back armchair, his fine shepherd dog resting alongside him, gave him the friendliest handshake and said: ‘Heil Hitler, Stabschef!’ What must he and the police have thought? I had no inkling of what had transpired beforehand, that Hitler himself, only half an hour previously, had roused his former friend Röhm for his bed and had him arrested.
36
Hitler issued his ‘Basic Order’ respecting secrecy on 25 September 1941. This was published to all military and Reich centres by the interior minister on 1 December 1941. Part I prescribed: ‘Nobody, no centre, no official, no employee and no worker may know of any secret matter which it is not absolutely necessary for that person to know in the course of his or her duty.’
37
Hitler attended the wedding ceremony with Göring on 28 June 1934 and afterwards visited the Krupp works at Essen.
38
In March or April 1933 Hitler formed a ‘Police Commando for Special Purposes’ headed by Johann Rattenhuber, a lieutenant in the Bavarian provincial police force and from 10 March 1933 adjutant to Himmler as president of police. The squad, all from Munich, was eight strong and worked alongside Hitler’s bodyguard, the